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Friday, June 29, 2012

A Song of the Past: Thirty-two

Deirdre traveled
back to headquarters. At her desk she leaned back in the chair with her feet
propped up. She closed her eyes and contemplated the impression that Jacob
deliberately had been withholding some crucial piece of her puzzle. Did the
piece reveal a facet of Alvin she had not yet seen? Or of Harrison, or Evelyn?
Or might it even display all three of them from an angle that made obvious how
they all were elements of a single picture?

Jacob had seemed
most defensive when asked about Evelyn. Was it possible that Jacob had some
connection to Evelyn apart from Harrison? If so, how might she discover it?

Well, she thought,
why not take the most obvious route first? She slid her feet off her desk,
flipped through her address book to the T's, and then dialed Harrison Tyler's
number. It seemed, indeed,
to be her lucky day, for he answered the phone himself.

"Mr.
Tyler?"

"Deirdre! So,
have you decided to fly away for a weekend after all? Or is there a new murder
that you think I’ve committed?"

"Detective, I'm
an investment banker, not a stock picker. But, if not vacation or murder, what
can I do for you?"

"Mr. Tyler, you
have a brother, Jacob, is that correct?"

"Certainly. But
you didn't think I was keeping that secret, did you?"

"No, not at
all. But I want to ask you something about him, and I hope you will consider
the question very carefully."

"You have my
full attention."

"Did Jacob ever
have any relationship with Evelyn aside from being her brother-in-law?"

"Although I was
willing to give your question as much thought as it required, it turns out that
it required very little. He certainly did."

Deirdre could not
quite believe how easily this had come out. "He did?"

"You don't
believe me?"

"No, no, I do.
What was it?"

"He was in love
with her, before she and I were married."

Deirdre did not
speak for many seconds.

"Detective, are
you still there?"

"Yes, Mr.
Tyler. Why didn't this come up during the investigation of Evelyn's
murder?"

"Well, it
hardly seemed relevant, did it? After all, that was nearly twenty years
ago."

"And Evelyn,
was she in love with him?"

"We never
discussed it, but I think she was."

"Then why did
she marry you?"

"Evelyn had
very definite standards as to how she ought to live. She realized that Jacob
would never meet those standards. A stone mansion on Chapel Street suited her
much more than a ranch house in Hamden."

"Were Jacob and
Evelyn lovers before you were married?"

"I never knew,
nor, indeed, did I ever want to know. But if you want my opinion, then yes, I
suspect they were."

"And you didn't
think any of this could have had any relevance to Evelyn's murder?"

"Detective
O'Reilly, not even someone as sentimental as Jacob could maintain an adolescent
crush for two decades."

Deirdre realized
that she was talking to a man for whom passion was a foreign, perhaps mythical,
concept. That a man like Jacob, with his intense, nervous, introverted nature,
might well be consumed by a single, overwhelming relationship for his whole
life would never occur to Harrison. But it occurred now
to Deirdre, and she needed some time to sort out the implications of the
notion.

"Mr. Tyler,
you've been very helpful. I don't want to take up any more of your time, so
I'll let you get on about your business now."

"But Detective,
there is no business I'd rather 'get on about' than talking to you."

"That's very
nice, Mr. Tyler. But look, I've got a murder to solve… or perhaps a couple of
murders to solve. I really have to go."